#kotlc father figures

[book-lover85]

Sophie holding Keefe while he's sleeping (he was exhausted and she's making sure he gets sleep) and Grady walks in on them

he's about to freak out but she shushes him agresssively because Keefe needs sleep and looks at him worriedly to make sure he's still asleep

Grady looks at both of them and his eyes soften before he walks up and gives Sophie a kiss on the forehead and Keefe a gentle shoulder squeeze and tells Sophie she should get some sleep too

[camelspit]

i think the best solution to the sophies dad issue is to mamma mia it. the black swan took dna from elwin, fintan, and gethen, mixed up the jars, and picked one at random. none of them actually know who her dad is, and they all think that they're the one.

[thedevilortheangel]

I just…..after Keefe and Sophie start dating, Grady calling Keefe kiddo too, I just-

[epic-kotlc-crossover]

The Horse and the Infant

This is the first chapter for the EPIC/KOTLC crossover!! (I know we did the thunder saga already but we had a lot of motivation for that and were really excited to post :D) Hope you guys enjoy!!

taglist: @justalunaticfangirl @myfairkatiecat @bookwormgirl123 @thesfromhms @ham-cheese-toastie

This was it, Fitz told himself. He glanced around the wooden horse at his fleet.

One last battle before he could go home, and one last battle before he could see Sophie and Marella again. Marella would be ten by now—it seemed almost crazy to think about.

"Alright, everyone!" He transmitted to the crowd of 600 men, thinking that talking would reveal their position. "Tonight, the Trojans will regret ever messing with us."

Fitz gestured to Keefe. "Your families are wondering where you've been. Do as I say and you'll see them again."

"Yessir!" The chorus of soldiers whispered as one, and Fitz grinned broadly, the dim lighting making it seem almost mad.

As he was sending out his instructions, Fitz let himself feel happy for one more moment—the war was almost over.

As the crowd dispersed, Fitz sent out a chant: "What do you live for? What do you fight for? What do you wish for?"

Sophie....

That was why he was doing all of this—for Sophie and Marella.

I'll fight for them. Fitz thought firmly.

"Attack!" He roared, and charged into the city, following his men.

Fitz was in the thick of the battle, screams and shouts mixing with the clash of his sword against his opponent's. All at once, his vision dimmed and he collapsed.

An clap of thunder boomed, and when Fitz opened his eyes, he wasn't in Troy anymore. Fitz glanced around, panic clogging his throat.

He seemed to be in the ruins of a city, and upon closer inspection, and a jolt of horror, he realized it was his kingdom. Ithaca.

What had happened? In the ten years he'd been gone, could everything have gone into shambles?

He couldn't—he had to find his men. Fitz needed to help them. They had to win this battle, but how could they do that when Fitz couldn't be with them?

How could he save Ithaca?

As he turned around one last time, a figure appeared. With a huge crackling lightning bolt, the person standing before him could only be Zeus. And, Fitz noticed with confusion, a baby swaddled in his right arm. Maybe he was finally doing child support?

"What was that?" His voice came out shaky, because he just realized that the wound in his side was gone-and so was the pain.

"A vision." Zeus' voice boomed, loud and deep, across the space. "Of what is to come. You can only change it right now."

Fitz didn't even pause before replying, "Tell me how?" His crew needed him, and he wouldn't be any use to them dead.

He wouldn't be any use to Ithaca dead.

Plus, he had to see Sophie.

A rumble of laughter erupted from Zeus. "I don't think you're ready." The god told Fitz.

Fitz bristled, offended but stayed silent as Zeus continued. "You'll need to kill someone's son, someone unlike anyone you've faced before."

Fitz straightened, ready to accept. "I can do this, I promise you."

Once again there was laughter-one that started to annoy Fitz deeply—and Zeus stepped forward and placed the baby in his arms.

Fitz looked down in horror. He couldn't mean—

"This is the son of Prince Hector. If you don't kill him now, he will grow up to kill you." Zeus paused. "If you don't kill him now, you'll have no home to protect."

Fitz shook his head wildly, and stumbled back, trying to think of what to do.

He could take him home with him—Sophie wouldn't mind, he was sure of it.

Fitz could sent the infant far, far away, where he could never find out about his father.

"You'll have blood on your hands either way, Fitz." The god told him, almost like he was reading Fitz's mind. "All you have to do is choose."

[lotusishere]

I know for sure if there was a cross over between PJO and KOTLC. Percy would beef with them the first time he met them. Let me set the scene. Do you guys remember when Percy just meet Carter from the Kane Chronicles? He thought Carter was a Greek demigod and was about to drag him because he kept getting in the way of the fight.

Now imagine Sophie, Keefe, Dex, Fitz, Tam, Linh, Wylie, Marella and Biana. Keefe with getting his ass almost killed every 2 seconds. Dex throwing all his creations at monsters. Fitz…idk what he does but I think he’s a scrapper (a regular no power fighter), Linh throwing waves and drowning everything. Wylie and his power of rainbows. Biana and Tam going in and out of invisibility. And Marella lighting the town like the Fourth of July. The way I could feel his eye twitch in horror trying to figure out what godly parent they all have and where they all came from. Better yet I know he would frown because he would be horrified to be dragged into another prophecy when he just wants to be with his girlfriend Annabeth.

He would feel like CHB is about to be repopulated with “British” sounding children with crazy powers. I know he would side eye Linh and think of his own father busted it wide open again without him knowing. And that would be even funnier for him thinking he has 2 new siblings because Tam and Linh are twins. But in reality he’s talking to Elves from one of the Barbie Fairytopia movies.

[cynicalclairvoyantcadaver]

Alden Vacker was horrible for this

Ok, listen.

Is anyone going to talk about one of if not the most disturbing thing in KOTLC?

I've seen only a few posts talking about this, and every time I think about it, I feel so odd about it. It's one of the most depressing things in the series. And almost everyone glosses over it.

What is it?

It's the fact that Sophie chose to erase her family's memories of her, their whole life, and have them be given new memories and start elsewhere.

Do you know how messed up this is?

Sophie's family had a life. They had friends. They had a house and a social circle and an entire damn life in San Diego, and all of their memories are just wiped and they move to another place because of one decision.

They don't have any autonomy in the say. The elves don't give them any. They don't explain what happened, they don't tell them anything.

No, instead they follow the rushed, not properly thought over decision of an immature, terrified twelve year old girl who was forced to leave her entire home and life behind. Hell, when I was younger and closer to Sophie's age, I thought that it was a good decision too. Now that I'm older, I can clearly look at this decision and say-

What the absolute fuck.

Now, do not think for a second that I am blaming Sophie here.

As I said, she was a terrified, panicked, immature TWELVE YEAR OLD who was forced to leave her entire home, life and family behind. If I had to that at twelve........well, I'm not as brave as Sophie.

I'm not blaming Sophie. I'm not blaming that scared twelve year old. She might have suggested it, but it was in the heat of panic, pure panic at having her home and everything she knew ripped away from her.

I'm blaming Alden. I'm blaming the Washers. I'm blaming the Council and literally everyone who agreed to this.

Alden should have sat Sophie down and explained all the consequences of this decision. He should have told Sophie that mourning the loss of a daughter was infinitely better than having all their memories wiped and their lives ripped away with absolutely no autonomy in that.

He should have firmly refused to do that, no matter how much Sophie begged and cried and yelled and pleaded.

Instead...........he did it.

IMHO, this really darkens Alden's morality. I mean he is still a light shade, but he's a light shade of gray.

He might be a good father figure to his children and Sophie, but let me tell you, this was the one thing that made me blanch at him and dislike him.

Alden pros can harp on all they like, but no KOTLC fan should ever forget this.

(It would have been really interesting to see Amy react realistically and hate Alden. That would have been the perfect ground for angst.)

[the-way-astray]

Hi-can I ask for your opinion on Alden as a person?

Not Aldella-though that's a very nice ship, possibly the purest one in KOTLC (apart from Dex's parents and Grady and Edaline)

I mean, just Alden as a person.

Like........he's a good father figure to Sophie and co, but I've also seen people saying that he unintentionally pressured his children to be social stars, which meant he kind of abused them because they were traumatised in some ways. I've heard people say all of this, and honestly-

I don't care about that. Like, yes, that is bad, but you know the one thing I care about?

He wiped Sophie's human family's memories-he ripped their lives away like they were nothing more than, I dunno, dumb animals or something. To make it worse, he's the one who suggested the idea (I think ) and Sophie's family had to suffer and had no autonomy in the choices because he didn't refuse to do this.

I'm not blaming Sophie-I'm blaming Alden for this.

Actually, why I'm sending this is because I read one of @cynicalclairvoyantcadaver's posts and they have a rant about the terrible thing that he did and I went back and read the first book and HOLY SHIT THEY'RE RIGHT.

So what's your opinion on Alden as a person? (Saying this as someone who loved the Anti Keefe rant) No pressure to do this immediately

ah, that post. i saw it, but figured the op wouldn't want a fight.

but first, to clear things up, i personally don't see aldella as a pure ship. it's pretty nasty. fucked up in all sorts of ways :)

so the argument seems to be that sophie's human parents did not have any autonomy, and that they'd have been better off thinking sophie was dead over having their memories wiped and being relocated. (and quick clarification: he was not the one who suggested it. that was sophie. alden was for killing sophie off in her human parents' minds, and in fact tried to talk sophie out of her decision.)

anyway, i really, really disagree that sophie's human parents would've been better off thinking sophie was dead. later on in the book, you can see sophie describe to marella how heartbroken her mom was when her grandma died. she was in a really bad place and incredibly emotional over it, and was thinking all sorts of devastating thoughts. sophie has seen her parents deal with the grief, and that's why she suggested to alden that they shouldn't have to be put through that unnecessarily.

as for alden, it's very clear to me that the reason he eventually backs down is because he realized he'd be putting sophie's human parents in the same position grady and edaline were in. if you read the line right before alden agrees to sophie's proposal, it's sophie saying something to the effect of "this option is better than them thinking their daughter is dead". then there's some line about alden realizing something, though at that point, sophie doesn't have the information necessary to piece together that it's about jolie. but it obviously is.

in fact, just in the line before the one i mentioned, the one about sophie saying it's better than thinking their daughter is dead, alden himself brings up op's main point: that they'd lose their jobs, friends, and home. he's well aware, but he has seen the exact kind of grief he knows sophie's human parents would have to live with. he knows exactly how they'd be affected, as someone who's close with grady and edaline.

there was no perfect solution there. like, fully nothing they could have done would have been a pure thing to do, there's no option that was indisputably good. there were just two options, both with some level of dark areas to them, and they picked the one that would cause the family less pain. or at least, that was the idea. obviously it didn't go according to plan. but that's because of a completely different flaw of alden's which i shall not delve into at this exact moment. so that's what i say to the notion that sophie's human family had their autonomy ripped away. like, yeah, but also there really wasn't a better option, as far as i'm concerned.

the entire situation falls under the category of morally ambiguous in general, but i've always been of the opinion that situation doesn't dictate a character's moral grayness, if that makes sense. a morally good individual will do the best thing morally they can given any situation, even if that decision is a bit morally gray. but what else could they have done? the situation only allows for morally gray choices to be made, meaning if the person makes the best moral choice from a series of morally gray choices, that actually makes them morally good, not morally gray. it's only when a character has free reign to choose between good and bad choices and chooses to pick a morally worse option that they are morally gray.

but in alden's case, as i've said, there was no perfect choice. there's no way he could've made a perfect morally good choice given the circumstances. he was backed up against a wall. he made the best moral choice from his options (in my opinion at least, for the reasons i've given above), which actually does mean he's morally good in this particular scenario.

i do personally see alden as a tiny bit morally gray, because of one thing he does at the beginning of nightfall. but that's a different thing entirely. when it comes to this particular situation, i do see him as morally good. i really don't see how a better moral choice could've been made.

and about the pressuring his kids, there's actually no evidence that he did that in canon. that's a fanon trait that's frequently given to alden in fic, and, if i'm understanding correctly, it's because people like to explore fucked up vacker family dynamics in fic. but as far as canon goes, there's no evidence he's ever pressured his children to be perfect, even unintentionally. i personally headcanon (and it's actually backed up by canon, so it's not even really a headcanon) alden and della to be fantastic amazing spectacular perfect parents, except they just have a fucked up relationship with each other. this doesn't affect their parenting abilities, only strains their relationship with one another.

anyway. the point i'm trying to make is that a lot of people seem to think alden pressured his kids (even unintentionally) in canon, because i do think that these fics have influenced fanon, which in turn has influenced the way people see alden. which is fine. but people do really need to admit that, as far as canon is concerned, there's no evidence to suggest alden did any, even unintentional, pressuring of his kids. there's in fact evidence to suggest the opposite, as we can see from the way he treated keefe in the flashback memory. he wanted keefe to take a break and wanted his father to stop pushing his so hard. i think (and this next part has little-to-no canon basis, but it's extrapolated from canon, so) that alden would actually go out of his way to make sure he was not subtly pressuring his kids because he'd seen the way keefe was affected by his father. i think alden's aware of that whole cassius-thinks-he's-doing-everything-for-keefe-out-of-love nonsense, and he'd be worried that he's accidentally doing the same thing with his own kids. so i really do think he'd go out of his way to make sure that he's not pressuring his kids at all, even accidentally.

[katies-anonymous-post-box]

Haiiii (i hope college is going well btw)

This isn't exactly weird

(Mainly bout kotlc)

But do u think Elwin is Sophie's bio father?

I think it’s a possibility! I definitely see the evidence. I’m not as certain about him as I was about Oralie. I’d be sad to see another trusted adult figure in Sophie’s life to turn out to be lying to her, but he also is in less of a position of power than Oralie, so it would probably not go the same way. I’m honestly okay with Sophie never knowing!

[synonymroll648]

Listen here, if Fintan isn't dead, then Kenric isn't dead. I am in a constant state of denial

Theories

- Kenric was "protected" by the Neverseen and is now probably a pale, beaten thing on the floor

- Kenric was brainwashed by the neverseen and Oralie's true loves kiss saves him or something cute like that

- Kenric did light leap out of there, he never went back to the council because he decided that the council is Bad™️

whaddup i am over a month late to answer this :D anyway. i am not necessarily in denial about kenric being dead but i am sure as hell in denial about a lot of other things in life so. i get that. let us vibe in elf hell mostly under the cut because i know myself and my response is going to be long. warnings for mentions of immolation, torture, etc that tend to come with talking about kenric!

response to theory one:

there are a lot of fascinating potential implications with the use of quotations around protected. obviously, the implications are most likely under the umbrella of 'taken by the neverseen and isolated from the public and its knowledge'. but there's a lot of different ways you could do that! my first thought is that fitnan somehow managed to get kenric out of the fire before he burned to a complete crisp.

and then kenric was taken as a hostage. maybe they told him that if he told them council secrets, he could go free. he probably didn't give in, and that's why he's a pale, beaten thing on the floor. but who knows, maybe he did - sooner or later, your pick - and they kept him beaten and pale on the floor anyway. sounds like something they'd do. sure would hurt as a reader :')

response to theory two:

kenric being brainwashed by the neverseen is another interesting concept!! interesting and o w on the emotional scale. i'd like to think that gethen's the one that does it. so it's a character we already know and we can have connections to crescent bite marks and frostbitten ridden nails and other things associated with gethen that could contrast with kenric as we used to know him and/or who he is now. it'd also be nice to come back to kenric in person, someone who was a huge comfort - almost father-like - figure to sophie before everblaze and what went down at oblivimyre, but twisted. well, not nice, it'd hurt like hell, but that's the fun part! taking a beloved character that's become more relevant through the opening of his cache in stellarlune (and legacy? i don't think so. but i can't really remember) and seeing him again would make me go :O (/pos or /neg depending on execution, but i'm leaning toward /pos)

as for the part about oralie - first thought, incredibly cheesy but i love cheesy. plus, considering the series we're talking about, i can see it working and being in-character and lore-compliant. kenric and oralie weren't ever together, but they are like. undeniably canon. and important to canon, because the nature of their dynamic was ultimately the catalyst for a lot of aspects of the series. i mean, like, sophie probably wouldn't exist biologically in the way we know her today if it weren't for her being close enough to kenric for him to consider her as a moonlark dna donor and for her to trust him with something like that.

so having oralie, someone who was incredibly important to him before he supposedly got roasted at oblivimyre for many years, kiss him? something he wanted for so very long but never got in canon iirc? that might snap him out of mind control. not just 'cause he's like head over heels in love with her but also because he has so many memories that are important to him tied to her, whether it's like. romantic or council shit or something else. considering the lore in kotlc surrounding the idea of triggering memories and/or resurfacing a form of someone's consciousness through things that are deeply tied to their past, big or small, this seems like a solid solution. and some fluff and/or hurt/comfort that shannon would probably lean into. also the consequences of a current councillor kissing a former councillor would be fucking DELICIOUS. probably angsty. still very scrumptious

response to theory three:

oooooh i'd never considered that! i'd always thought of kenric as the kind of guy that wasn't necessarily loyal to the council first and foremost - considering how much he cared about sophie and oralie and possibly/probably the black swan or at least certain members of its organization - but cared too much about the elvin population to abandon his post as councillor willingly. though i do suppose there's always been an element of longing for a different life with his character, isn't there?

this is largely expressed through his love for oralie, but i'm sure there's more layers to it than that if you look close. i never really fixated on kenric, so i can't think of concrete evidence from the books off the top of my head that doesn't involve oralie, but you could probably pull from moments between him and sophie. she literally asks - forkle, i think? - if he's her father. and, y'know, she's wrong (unless shannon decides that was a lie), but. to stand up for a kid enough that she asks if you're her dad? definitely can be read as wanting a family at one point. which isn't a stretch, considering how oralie literally tells sophie that she gave the black swan her dna for project moonlark because she'd always wanted a kid but she couldn't as a councillor, and that was her one compromise available. and kenric is, as previously mentioned, infatuated with oralie. them secretly wanting a family together makes sense.

also, like, the entire series makes a point of him being a lot more mysterious than he looks on a surface level. some parts of the mystery of his character compelling him to leave the council behind when he gets the chance? understandable. heartbreaking, to know that he left sophie and everyone else he swore he'd protect behind instead of coming back, and unknowingly leaving them all to deal with the menace (/neg) that is alina as a councillor, but alas. it could work. i'd want reasons, though. lore as to why, lore as to where he went once he disappeared, what he's done with his new life.

random side note: it's an interesting thought to muse about whether or not kenric saw keefe while he was hiding in the forbidden cities. if he decided to get closer or further. if it was closer, it was probably in disguise. but chances are, he probably walked off as soon as he could.

if you read through to the end i'm proud of you holy shit

[kale-of-the-forbidden-cities]

KotLC OC tournament info post - 22/24

Sakuri Rosier

Name: Sakuri Rosier

Species: Elf

Gender/Pronouns: she/her

Creator: Sienna @siennamakeschaos (she/her)

Picrew credit: character maker! ✦ by veluv 

Short desc: traumatised, shy flasher/polyglot who stars in alchemy and elementalism

Backstory: Sakuri lived with her parents, her father was a Telepath and her mother a Conjurer, and three siblings. Kerryn was older than her by ten years and Terri and Kerri- twins- were younger by three years. Sakuri lived a pretty chill life up until the age of nine. She found Kerryn trying to lightleap to the Forbidden Cities with a blue crystal, which she had obviously recognised from her tutoring sessions. She was curious and as Kerryn tried to lightleap away, she grabbed onto his wrist. Kerryn got mad and dragged her down the alleyway, where there was a mysterious figure waiting. This figure was a member of the Neverseen who was willing to accept Kerryn into the Neverseen if he passed a test. Since Sakuri was there, she became the test. In the end, Kerryn struck her with a melder. She was found before matters could escalate too quickly, however, her parents having noticed her missing. Sakuri's family already faced scorn for having twins, the scandal of Kerryn running off to join the Neverseen and severly injuring his own sister only added to that scorn. Sakuri is shy and she doesn't like socialising. One day while sitting at the cafeteria while at Foxfire, a girl named Juniper came over and sat with her. They bonded over art- Juniper loved to create art, while Sakuri liked to look at it. The two quickly became friends and did normal Foxfire student stuff :)

If you would like me to edit anything on this post, let me know!

[thefanboyhub]

PEOPLE OF TUMBLR!

I need entertainment and online friends who will just vibe with me and be gay/autistic/chaotic with me.

You may be asking "But Karma! What do you have to offer us?"

WELL MY DEAR FELLOW LET ME TELL YOU!

My special interests are KOTLC, FNAF, and Markiplier, I can talk about them all day any day any era of them anything, ANYTHING.

My music taste is literally godly (I listen to just about everything, at least ONE song from every genre I discover.) And I'm willing to listen to anything you suggest and give actually honest feed back.

I will read your fanfiction religiously and praise you while giving feedback. I will also praise and give feedback (if asked) on your art! (Especially if you draw something for me, I will cry and absolutely cherish it)

I CAN MATCH YOUR ENERGY 💜 (usually)

I am always open to listen to you vent as long as you ask first and don't make it the only thing we talk about. If you want advice I can give that too! I've experienced a lot in life in a short amount of time.

I'm into all sorts of witch type of stuff. I don't judge religion as long as you don't judge me for being omnist/j (me and one of my father figures came up with the term as a joke. It means a follower of many but not one religion/practice).

IM GAY ASF AND DONT DISCRIMINATE UNLESS YOURE A PEDOPHILE/RAPIST/ASSHOLE.

I just want an online friend man 😭

Anyways. Message me or whatever, I'll give you my discord or Instagram or whatever we both have lol. Bye bye now.

[camelspit]

neverseen missed out tbh. as soon as they heard that someone accidentally flooded atlantis and got banished, they should have snatched up the song twins FAST. two powerful twins cast out by society with nowhere to go and no love for the government?? your recruitment office needs to get their shit together!!!

[official-kenralie-fanbase]

Oralie for character ask game?

Anon you have no idea of the beast you have just unleashed

My honest opinion of them: Just like with Kenric, Oralie didn't really stand out to me when I first started reading KOTLC. I think the first point I really realized that there was more to her than met the eye was at the beginning of Neverseen, when she gave Sophie Kenric's cache. Even then, I wasn't super invested in her character at first. I thought she was a neat character, but not terribly interesting. Until I read Legacy. I'd figured out that she was Sophie's mom, but still, nothing will come close to the way reading that scene for the first time felt. That was when I began to realize the intricacies of her character. She was someone who everyone claimed couldn't lie, yet had kept a major secret from the world for years. And again, like with Kenric, her role in Unlocked broke me. The way she was trying so hard to help Sophie, even after everything that had happened between them... why must you break my heart like this, Shannon :( :( :( But in addition to that, I don't like her because I think she's a perfect character. Far, far from it. She's made a lot of mistakes, and she is a Councillor. But I love her depth of character (which I will be going into further on my project for Roison's Reading Rumble) and how she's so much deeper than she originally seems.

Who (if anyone) I ship with them: Once again, do I even need to answer this question

And what I think will happen with them in the next book(s): So much. So, so much. If I went into full detail about everything I think/hope is going to happen, you would probably be here until at least mid-April. So I'll just make some brief comments on various things that might happen. I think the chances of her making it to the end of the series without anyone realizing her secret are very slim. I have several ways I think this might happen: She has to reveal it herself to save Sophie, someone else reveals it to compromise the Council, or the Council finds out and kicks her off. There's probably going to be a huge tribunal scene, and I absolutely cannot wait to read that. I'm guessing she'll get removed from the Council mid-book (if there's only one book left) and spend the rest of the book(s) helping the Black Swan. I went into detail on this in my Characters Who Might Die ask, but I definitely think there's a major possibility that she dies. I also think that she's going to be revealed to be a super awesome fighter, and probably have an epic battle with Fintan (especially if I'm right and Fintan's Sophie's father.) She's also probably going to help discover more about how Kenric was involved in everything, and hopefully, her relationship with Sophie will improve as they work together (about which I have a current ask, coming soon). I could go into further detail, but this post is already way too long, so in summary: I think she's going to be very important.

Send me any KOTLC character for the ask game!

[multi-fandom-lunatic]

:D I have plenty

Kotlc is boring. The first book and anything Nightfall and post loses everything I love about the series.

Keefe Sencen is toxic and manipulative (I don't like him)

Fitz Vacker is a more developed character than Keefe and morally better than the blond.

Fitz doesn't have anger issues, he has a temper. We, as a fandom, need to stop using both interchangeably.

Sophie is a vanilla main character who's personality changes on Shannon's whims and fancies. Is she a kickass protag? A hormonal teen? A pawn in the game? Pick ONE-

Sokeefe sucks. The only reason it's shipped is because Shannon makes Keefe so "likeable" (in quotes because he really isn't IMO), and Sophie's the MC. They're just two people and I promise you that in any other book or author they wouldn't be shipped.

More KOTLC fans should be aware and RIOTING because of the Laura Hollingsworth/Shannon Messenger/homophobia thing. SM's apology was shit, and we need to focus on THAT.

The entire "gnomes are servants to the superior, prettier race of beings, but don't worry, they actually enjoy working, but also their home is not safe for them to go to" is racist and we cannot ignore it.

SM is careless at best, downright malicious at worst for the comparisons and racist things that are in the book (one example above)

It sucks that the focus of the series shifted from defeating the Neverseen to "oh what has Gisella done to Keefe now"

The KOTLC girls are just so mid. Like so terribly mid. Especially compared to any other girls from other series.

SM's sexist comments that she makes in books are bad enough, but 1. pretending they didn't happen and 2. not apologising for it is far worse.

There's no character development in the series. The characters just rapidly change based on the scenario.

(Not sure if this is unpopular) We need more cute Keeftiz, Marellinh, etc moments. Not even romantic, per se, but things like Keefe and Fitz baking together, Marella and Linh playing Bramble and stuff.

The cast is too big. IMO it should be Sophie, Keefe, Fitz, Tam and Linh and maybe Dex. The other characters lack character development and importance. Wylie and Maruca are just so irrelevant it's laughable that they're in the main cast.

I want the series to end, but I don't think it'll be just if it in a book 10. Shannon has too many loose threads that even she knows aren't going to be tied up in one book. Having a book 10 be the final one would be so rushed and just unsatisfying.

The official art is so bad. Like, it just looks so off for all the characters. The style doesn't suit them, the stance doesn't suit them. It's just bad.

(Not sure if this is unpopular) SM is straight up weird and creepy for the way Sodex turned out. She could've made them best friends and made them kiss. But NO. They're cousins. I don't care if they're adopted or whatnot, it's weird.

Wylinh is creepy. Linh is around 15/16 and Wylie is 20/21. And they have the same father figure. That's just straight up creepy.

Grady shipping his DAUGHTER and his NEPHEW together is so creepy. It's meant to be this cute gag and it's just not cute. At ALL.

Matchmaking is Elvin eugenics.

It's a damn shame that Sophie didn't end up being a more activist character, because to me that would make her seem more in character (Forbidden Cities stuff) and more likeable. We see minute glimpses of this but it's never built upon.

Fitz getting mad at Sophie for not telling him her bio mom/being not the matchmaking lists is the most out of character this EVER. Like, isn't this the same boy who broke into Exile ILLEGALLY four books prior? This him?

Stina, while rude, is ultimately right about Sophie being unfit for a leader position. Sophie is the MOONLARK, but that doesn't mean she needs to be a leader.

Team Valiant is terrible. Eugh.

I wish Sophie held on to more of a grudge against the council. They made her wear a TORTURE DEVICE (ability restrictor) made by her BEST FRIEND AND COUSIN. I wouldn't forget that. Ever.

(Not sure if this is unpopular) Shannon should make a collection of short stories about the characters' lives after the series ends. Things like the Great Gulon Incident, Keefitz baking moments, just sweet, small scale stuff.

I think I'm fresh out of hot takes, haha. Just to clarify, I mean none of this with malice, just stating what I think!

Gimme ur unpopular kotlc opinions, no hate zone (I might explain why I disagree with you but all respectful)

[winterfireice]

I was just thinking about Elwin he’s just such a good person and cares about the kids so much and he’s so good with them too. He’s the father figure keefe needs and also a great one to Sophie